so i finally did it after putting it off for like two years lol. passed my technician exam yesterday at the library, the VE team was super nice and one of them let me use his HT to try calling on the local repeater right there in the parking lot. got a response from some guy about 12 miles away who gave me a 59 and we chatted for maybe 5 minutes. honestly didnt expect it to work that fast and i kind of froze up forgetting my callsign halfway through but he was patient about it.

anyway just wanted to say hi i guess. been lurking here for months reading about all this stuff and now im actually licensed. got a baofeng uv-5r coming from amazon which i know everyone has opinions about but its what i can afford right now. any tips for a brand new tech would be great

congrats on passing, that first contact feeling is something you dont forget. i remember mine was on a 2m simplex frequency and i was so nervous i gave my callsign wrong twice. the guy on the other end just laughed and said welcome to ham radio.

the baofeng will get you going just fine dont let anyone tell you otherwise. just make sure you program it properly before you key up on any repeaters, theres a program called chirp that makes it way easier than trying to do it through the keypad. and check the local repeater directory for your area, most clubs have a main one that gets a lot of traffic especially in the mornings with commuters.

welcome welcome. im pretty new myself, got my ticket about 4 months ago. the baofeng is fine honestly i still use mine even though i also have a yaesu now. study for your general when you get a chance, opens up a lot of HF stuff which is where things get really interesting imo